Page 112 of The Duke and Lady Scandal
Allie glanced back at him, and he smiled. After they’d talked the matter through, and he’d pondered on his own, he’d decided to tender his notice to Scotland Yard and open his own detective agency.
Mr. Fitzroy was trying to lure him to his own agency, but Ben liked the idea of independence. And Allie couldn’t have agreed more.
“Is he here about the theft?” Eve queried as she stepped out of the back with Mr. Gibson.
“He was here about the theft actually. And about a strange conversation I overheard at Hawlston’s.”
“And then to find you before you went to the house of a madman,” Ben said quietly.
“Would someone like to tell me what the hell is going on?” Dom strode to the center of the room and glared at Ben.
“We had an adventurous couple of weeks,” Allie told them with not a small amount of pleasure. “Then he asked me to marry him, and I said yes.”
Ben drew closer and curled his hand around her waist.
Dom stood slack-jawed, darting his gaze from Allie to Ben and back again.
Eve stood with one hand over her mouth and then moved past Dom to give Allie a hug. She offered Ben a smile too.
“May I offer a pre-wedding welcome to the Prince family, Detective Inspector?” she said.
“Ben will do just fine.” He reached out his hand to shake hers.
Dom’s jaw was clenched and he was frozen in the contemplative mode that led either to acceptance or to him railing against fate.
Finally, some of the tension in his body eased and he approached to offer Ben his hand.
“This is highly irregular, but I welcome you too.” Dom turned a disgruntled look Allie’s way. “I take it we’ll get further explanation at some point.”
“Perhaps we can all go out to dinner, and we’ll tell you the whole complicated story,” Allie offered.
“We should,” Eve agreed. “In fact, if Dom and I get washed and changed, we could try for this evening.”
Dom murmured in agreement.
“Will you join us, Mr. Gibson?” Allie asked. “You’re part of the family too.”
“I’d be delighted.”
Ben shifted from behind her and took up the spot Dom had vacated in the center of the room.
“Before anyone departs, I thought you’d all like to have a look at this.” He dug in his pocket and pulled out a folded and neatly clipped rectangle of newspaper. “I’m assuming you haven’t seen today’sIllustrated Police News?”
Allie shook her head, disbelieving, and reached for the clipping.
Unfolding the paper carefully, she gulped and laughed at the same time.
“Is this real?”
“As you see. It’s very real indeed.”
The article featured sketches of her and Ben and a rather extreme caricature of Mortimer Denby. The title readLady Shop Owner Helps Nab Jewel Thief.
Eve and Dom and Mr. Gibson crowded in for a look too.
Dom lifted his gaze to Allie’s with a sort of awestruck pride. “It seems your days while we were gone weren’t humdrum at all.”
“Goodness,” Eve said as she skimmed the article. “You hit him with your boot?”
